Hello all,
I finally got fed up with the MoshiDraw software that came with my Chinese 40W laser engraver. I purchased Mach 3 to run my mill, so it was a quick change to get it on my laser. I replaced the stepper drives and set up output 1 (Spindle) to trigger the laser on and off. First run was with Arts "roadrunner" file. This file turns the spindle on at start and off at the end, so the laser is running at all points between at the power setting I have manually dialed in at the laser. The spindle does not turn off during the rapids. I could go in and edit the Gcode to turn it on and off during rapids, but it would be so much easier if I could set up a trigger within Mach 3 that turns the laser on when Z= -.1 and off when Z has moved up for a rapid. Any advice out there? I really need to sit down and learn more about Mach 3. Certainly the same operations that occur for Plasma cutting could be used to trigger the laser on and off for my present paper cutting operations.